Dreamers and eccentrics keep things very interesting in our culture. We need people to think differently from everyone else. If everyone always thinks the same as everyone else, we'll just be in a never ending path down a perfectly straight sidewalk. There wouldn't be any change. I think our culture both encourages it but also discourages it. There will always be people that do not want the world to change. There will always be people who want everything left alone. They want everything to be left just how it is right now. But if there weren't people out there to encourage this change, then there wouldn't be a change. We live in a society where things are always constantly changing.
Reading Holding On is going okay. When reading the first few profiles, I was not really interested in the stories. They all had very interesting stories to tell, and they had good lessons to learn. I really enjoy how when he writes these profiles you get the feeling that you're talking to the person. Some of the profiles you totally forget that it's all just an interview. I really like how he writes them this way. One thing that I don't enjoy about this book is that I don't always get interested in all of the people and just read to get that profile done for the day.
The profile of Geneva Tisdale struck me the most. She was one of the few women who served food during the sit-in movement in 1960. In her story she said "I would listen and say to myself, 'you don't know that the same one you talking about is the one that's preparing your food!' It made you feel funny - I'm not good enough to sit at the counter with them, but I'm good enough to fix their food." This really hit me reading this. I grew up learning about all of the things people had to go through to get equal rights. It's a lot different when you hear directly from someone who's been there and lived through it instead of indirectly from teachers who also get their information indirectly. She lived through this period and saw some incredible things happen. She was even one of the first African-American to get to be served at the table.
Eccentric people do seem to spice up our lives don't they. And I love the analogy towards a lack of progression without eccentric people. Would you be able to expand more on the lessons you learned form the first few stories? I found it hard to really find the meaning in the first few and am looking for someone else's thoughts and opinions to help me understand or think differently. Because of this I too suffer from not being able to connect with the reading and get it done to be able to participate in class. Your quote is really powerful in expressing what you wanted to communicate.
ReplyDeleteI agree that eccentrics really keep things interesting. I also agree that different thoughts and ideas are important for people to have choices.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree and dislike that so many people would rather let things start the same than change them for the better. It's a little sad how we're afraid to leave our comfort zones
ReplyDeleteYou have a great time expressing your thoughts. Knowing that you were able to say that we are always changing is really great to hear. Not everyone stays the same.
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